Seuss' The Lorax, and formed Illumination Mac Guff. During the summer 2011, Illumination acquired the animation department of the French animation and visual effects studio Mac Guff, which animated Despicable Me and Dr. As part of the deal, Illumination retains creative control and Universal exclusively distributes the films. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! After leaving, he founded Illumination Entertainment and a deal was announced positioning Illumination Entertainment as NBCUniversal's family entertainment arm that would produce one to two films a year starting in 2010. While at those companies he supervised or executive-produced movies including Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Robots, and Dr. Meledandri left as President of 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios in early 2007.
All three are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, and six of their films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films. The studio's highest-grossing films are Minions, which has grossed $1.159 billion worldwide, Despicable Me 3, $1.034 billion and Despicable Me 2, $970.8 million.
Illumination has produced 10 feature films, with its latest release being The Secret Life of Pets 2, with an average gross of $695.4 million per film. The Minions, characters from the Despicable Me series, are the studio's mascots. Seuss’ books The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The studio is responsible for the Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets franchises and the film adaptations of Dr. Meledandri produces the films, while Universal finances and distributes all the films. Illumination (formerly named Illumination Entertainment) is an American film and animation studio founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007 and owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast.